Dirty rat—nutty judge—hoodlum—lazy blood-sucking jobber— William Halitosis Thompson—blustering loudmouth, irresponsible mountebank—blubbering jungle hippopotamus—lurching, shambling imbecile—flabby jowls of a barnyard hog—two jackass ears, a cowboy hat and an empty space between—chambermaid in a ranch bunkhouse—skunk—:
With such epithets loud-yawping Mayor William Hale Thompson and publicity-crazed Municipal Judge John Homer Lyle belabored each other last week in the final round of their fight for the Republican nomination to be Mayor of Chicago. The primary election was to be held Feb. 24, their battleground was the Loop, their prize the honor of being the city's First Citizen during the Century of Progress (1933). Their hooligan antics, their vulgar language blanketed other reasonable is sues, obscured other candidates.
Mayor Thompson—"Big Bill the Builder"—sought a fourth term in a campaign in which he flayed Prohibition, harped on waterway development, abused the Chicago Tribune and his opponents. His famed "King George" issue was played down. Into the Loop his limping, bulky racoon-coated figure led his parade of bands, elephants, cowboys, burros, mules to block traffic for hours. At his rallies he shook a halter at pop-eyed crowds, loudly denied that he, unlike his rival, was tethered to the Press. When his speeches grew so vicious that local papers refused to carry them, he screamed more insanely than ever against the Press.
Typical was an incident in a Loop theatre last week. The Mayor boomed out his usual nonsensical speech, twirled his halter, cried: "I wear no man's halter around my neck but thank God, I've got one real friend in the newspaper business. He's a Democrat and his name is William Randolph Hearst."* Up rose a heckler to shout: "And he's got his halter around your neck, you lying skunk, Bill Thomp son." Eggs began to splatter over the stage.
An angry Thompson crowd fell upon the heckling egger, almost tore him to bits before he was rescued by police. Ten minutes later when quiet had been restored, Mayor Thompson continued: "That hoodlum Lyle sent one of his gangsters over here to break up this meeting. The nutty judge lives with the hoodlums, the dirty rat!"